LOS ANGELES, CA — (Marketwire) — 08/01/11 — (OTCBB: MMRF) (“MMR”) a provider of (PHR) through its portal and electronic document management systems for healthcare professionals () today announced that it has recovered more than 1,000 biological samples from defendants in a lawsuit brought last year by . The RHL Group is a creditor of MMRGlobal and one of the Company-s largest shareholders. The Company also announced that on Friday, July 29, 2011, it filed a complaint in Superior Court of the County of Los Angeles against reality television stars Taylor Ford Armstrong and Russell Lynn Armstrong as well as NuWay Digital Systems, Inc. and others (the Armstrongs), seeking liquidated damages of $1,500,000 plus any additional claims for $250,000 each that could surface during the litigation.
In the case of the biotech IP, which the Company believes include blood, antibodies, vaccine, patient samples and data, the assets were acquired as a result of MMR-s reverse merger with Favrille, Inc., a San Diego biotech company, in January 2009. Favrille spent more than $140 million on the development of a portfolio of biotech assets and related patents including the FavId idiotype vaccine that was the Company-s lead product candidate for the treatment of B-cell Non-Hodgkin-s Lymphoma. Over the last two years, MMR has been working to maximize the value of its biotech assets.
In November 2010, the Company announced it had signed a settlement agreement with the Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF) involving the transfer and recovery of data, tissue samples and other assets for which samples had been the subject of an ownership dispute with LRF. That action was resolved by giving MMR the exclusive control of those assets. Discovery during that case led to the recovery of the additional samples announced today.
According to Robert H. Lorsch, MMRGlobal CEO, “In the latest settlement involving our biotech assets, there is at least four times the number of samples being returned to the Company than was previously recovered from LRF. At this time we do not know the value to shareholders, however, based on expert testimony in the LRF case we believe it could be significant when combined with whole blood or serums and patient data from the Company-s vaccine research on B-Cell Non-Hodgkin-s Lymphoma.”
MMRGlobal continues to explore licensing opportunities for its biotech assets, patents and other intellectual property, including panels of anti-CD20 antibodies, with pharmaceutical companies, universities and institutional investors to create future streams of revenue for its shareholders. As a result of these efforts to date, the Company announced last December the signing of its first Non-Exclusive License Agreement to investigate the Company-s clinical and scientific data for certain confidential purposes. MMR has already received $750,000 under that agreement and could receive as much as $13 million more based upon the achievement of certain development milestones.
In respect to the complaint filed in Superior Court against the Armstrongs, NuWay Digital Systems, Inc. (NDS) and others, the lawsuit alleges that the Armstrongs engaged in a pattern of self-dealing that was designed to enrich themselves to the detriment of the Company. Among other things, the complaint states they diverted more than one million dollars intended for investment in MMR to themselves, NDS and others. They also attempted to use restricted MMR shares and personal stock options to pay for expenses, which in one instance included interior decorating services for a Beverly Hills mansion.
After discovery of Russell Armstrong-s actions, the Company filed a lawsuit against him, Taylor Armstrong, NDS and others. At the time, Russell Armstrong was the largest shareholder of the then privately held company. The Armstrongs quickly settled with the Company with the surrender of 100% of all shares held in the privately held MyMedicalRecords.com, Inc. along with a cash payment to the Company of $250,000.
According to Richard Charnley of Ropers Majeski Kohn Bentley PC, “It is extraordinary that the complaint against Russell and Taylor Armstrong was verified under oath by MMR-s CEO, Robert Lorsch, demonstrating the seriousness of this lawsuit and MMR-s commitment to its shareholders.”
As a material condition of the settlement, the Company required that the Armstrongs identify anyone who was an indirect transferee of shares purchased from them. The disclosure was to enable MMR to contact the investors and issue them the shares they were entitled to from the surrendered shares. The private company retained any excess Armstrong surrendered shares in treasury for other purposes. MMR contacted dozens of investors and issued millions of shares to put the Armstrongs behind it. All the Armstrongs had to do was identify the indirect transferees. The Company recently learned that the Armstrongs breached the settlement agreement and as a result it took the action on behalf of shareholders to sue for liquidated damages specified in the agreement of $1,000,000 for the first breach and $250,000 for each additional breach.
“MMR continues to do the best for its shareholders and to make sure they benefit from any assets due to the Company,” Lorsch said. “MMR gave the an opportunity to quietly remove themselves from the Company and end any dispute in 2007. All they had to do was identify the people that invested with them, thinking they were investing in MyMedicalRecords.com. For the past three years, my holding Company, The RHL Group, Inc., lent, and continues to lend, millions of dollars to MMR in support of the Company. The investors in 2007 received the equity they were promised through the settlement agreement. Since the Armstrongs appear to have breached that agreement, investors in MMRGlobal should benefit from monies recovered from the Armstrongs.”
MMRGlobal, Inc., through its wholly-owned operating subsidiary, MyMedicalRecords, Inc. (“MMR”), provides secure and easy-to-use online Personal Health Records (“PHRs”) and electronic safe deposit box storage solutions, serving consumers, healthcare professionals, employers, insurance companies, financial institutions, and professional organizations and affinity groups. The PHR enables individuals and families to access their medical records and other important documents, such as birth certificates, passports, insurance policies and wills, anytime from anywhere using the Internet. MyMedicalRecords is built on proprietary, patented technologies to allow documents, images and voicemail messages to be transmitted and stored in the system using a variety of methods, including fax, phone, or file upload without relying on any specific electronic medical record platform to populate a user-s account. The Company-s professional offering, , is designed to give physicians- offices an easy and cost-effective solution to digitizing paper-based medical records and sharing them with patients in real time through an integrated patient portal. MMR is an Independent Software Vendor Partner with Kodak to deliver an integrated turnkey EMR solution for healthcare professionals. Through its merger with Favrille, Inc. in January 2009, the Company acquired intellectual property biotech assets that include anti-CD20 antibodies and data and samples from its FavId/Specifid vaccine clinical trials for the treatment of B-Cell Non-Hodgkin-s lymphoma. To learn more about MMR Global, Inc. and its products, visit .
Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical in nature, including statements related to the lawsuit involving the Company-s biotech intellectual property assets and the complaint filed against Taylor Ford Armstrong, Russell Lynn Armstrong, NuWay Digital Systems, Inc. and others, constitute “forward-looking statements.” Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company-s actual results to be materially different from historical results or from any results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Some can be identified by the use of words (and their derivations) such as “need,” “possibility,” “offer,” “development,” “if,” “negotiate,” “when,” “begun,” “believe,” “achieve,” “will,” “estimate,” “expect,” “maintain,” “plan,” and “continue,” or the negative of these words. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the risk and uncertainties inherent in litigation; the risk the Company-s products are not adopted or viewed favorably by the healthcare community and consumer retail market; risks related to the current uncertainty and instability in financial and lending markets, including global economic uncertainties; product integration in physician practices and hospitals; timing and volume of sales and installations; length of sales cycles and the installation process; market acceptance of new product introductions; ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships; ability to identify and integrate acquisitions; relationships with licensees; competitive product offerings and promotions; changes in government laws and regulations and future changes in tax legislation and initiatives in the healthcare industry; undetected errors in our products; possibility of interruption at our data centers; risks related to third party vendors; risks related to obtaining and integrating third-party licensed technology; acceptance of the Company-s marketing and promotional campaigns; risks related to a security breach by third parties; maintaining, developing and defending our intellectual property rights including those pertaining to our biotechnology assets; risks associated with recruitment and retention of key personnel; uncertainties associated with doing business internationally across borders and territories; and additional risks discussed in the Company-s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Additionally, we are a developing early-stage company and many variables can affect revenues and/or projections, including factors out of our control. The Company is providing this information as of the date of this release and, except as required by law, does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
CONTACT:
Michael Selsman
Public Communications Co.
(310) 553-5732
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